While the Rancho Mirage City Council candidates who failed to snag a seat on council accepted the election results with grace, incumbent Dana Hobart did not hold back in summing up his assessment of his challengers.

In a statement to the Rancho Mirage News Facebook group following Tuesday's election, Hobart said: “This vote stamped out appropriately against some of the nastiest people I have ever encountered in an election campaign in my long career serving our city.”

This election not only brought out the viciousness of certain candidates, but it also showed the power of incumbency within the city.

Hobart, who was first elected in 2002, also thanked the voters of Rancho Mirage for supporting the incumbent team which also included Mayor Charles Townsend and Iris Smotrich. Townsend was elected in 2014 while Smotrich was appointed in 2011 to fill a vacancy and then was re-appointed in 2012 and has retain her seat since.

Townsend also provided comments to the Rancho Mirage New Facebook page, paralleling the thanks, but without taking any stabs at the challengers. Smotrich did not provide any comments.

Townsend pledged to keep his “commitment to fiscal responsibility, our quality of life, protect our infrastructure, safety and growth. I also will continue support of new and established business. I will continue to keep my open-door policy to you, the residents of Rancho Mirage.”

The three incumbents campaigned together and shared nearly 70 percent of the vote, with Hobart taking the lead. They advanced a collective message of keeping Rancho Mirage as it is and continuing its fiscal conservancy.

In comments to The Desert Sun on Tuesday night, the three challengers – Kate Spates, Bob Mueller and Michael Harrington – acknowledged the power of the incumbency, but wished the candidates all well as they continued their work on the City Council.

Spates said she appreciated that the incumbents worked to answer every question she posed to them during the election while Harrington wished the council success, and Mueller said “hats off to those who won…it shows the power of incumbency.”

Hobart has previously discussed the effectiveness of keeping incumbents in power during prior candidate forums saying that term limits disallow councils from doing real work because as soon as a councilmember finally learns the ropes of local government, they are forced to move on.

In the same forum, Mueller said he felt the city should have term limits in order to bring fresh ideas to the city.

Mueller said in his opinion, he believes term limits of two or three terms would be helpful for Rancho Mirage. He said he believes term limits are a tool for to continually grow, avoid becoming stagnant and to remain competitive among other cities. However, Mueller doesn’t think Rancho Mirage is interested in that type of growth.

“Given the incumbents’ recent strong election showing, it would seem Rancho Mirage residents perceive no need to remain competitive among surrounding cities nor a need for the city to continuously evolve,” Mueller said.

But regardless of term limits, Charlie Barrett, who runs the Rancho Mirage News Facebook group, said he felt the incumbents continue to be the best fit for the city. Like many, he wasn’t surprised at the results.

“I could not be more pleased they were all re-elected,” Barrett said in a statement to The Desert Sun. “This election differed strongly from past ones I have witnessed in 2016, 2014 in that it became a very contentious one. The voters of Rancho Mirage gave the incumbents a strong mandate and continued them in office as I always thought they would.”

Desert Sun reporter Nicole Hayden covers the cities of La Quinta, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert. She can be reached at Nicole.Hayden@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4623.